Executive Summary

Polyfit Synthetics is an Indonesian cloth manufacturing company. Since its inception, the company has been manufacturing women clothes. Recently, the company has desired to increase its sales with an attempt to increase its profit levels. The management has come to a conclusion that various changes should be instituted in the organisation in order to achieve this objective. Among the changes is the introduction of men clothes in the sales mix. This is expected to increase the market share hence boost the sales levels. The organisation also wants to change the company’s culture of imitating other brands and modifying them slightly. There is the need of the company being an innovative hub in the industry for it to achieve the desired profit levels. Being innovative will also come along with building a brand that they will be recognised within the market. For this to be achieved, the management intends to develop an innovation department that will work independently. New employees will be brought in order offer the necessary expertise. Introduction of these changes will necessitate some changes in the human resource department so that the organisation has the ability of recruiting the most appropriate employees for the new areas that will be adopted.

The management aims at involving the current employees in the change process so that they can be able to minimise the possibility of change resistance. The activities being adopted during this period are compatible with the change being implemented. Communication and education, participation and coercion have been chosen as the suitable change implementation tactics. Coercion will only come in as a last result if the others fail to work. A proofing mechanism has also been put in place. It will ensure that the change established remains sustainable in the future.

Introduction

Polyfit Synthetics is a cloth manufacturing company located in Indonesia. It has been in this industry since 2005. During this period, the company’s management has learnt a lot, which has enabled the company to reach its current status. The company has more than 150 employees working in different departments. This includes marketing, accounting, production, sales among others. The company is also involved in the distribution of its products to the designated outlets.  Each department has its own manager who is responsible for all the activities being undertaken in the unit. The organisation uses a mechanistic management structure whereby employees work separately and adhere to the designated chain of command.  The communication channel makes it easy for the top level manager to pass information to all the employees regardless of their status in the organisation (Dickersbach, 2011).  Currently, Polyfit Synthetics concentrates with manufacturing of women clothes.  So far this has been successful, but they are finding it difficult to expand based on their business model. Polyfit Synthetics has not been developed as an innovative hub. This is because its model is based on imitating what the high ranked companies in this industry are manufacturing then add minimal changes, which make their products seem unique. The company wants to increase its profit levels in the coming years with significant numbers. This aspect has necessitated the need to initiate various changes in the organisation.

Changes to be Introduced

Polyfit Synthetics has outlined various changes that will be spearheaded in order to attain the desired profit levels and build a favourable corporate image. The first change will be to embark on production of men clothes in conjunction to the existing women clothes. Polyfit Synthetics will change its focus from imitating what other companies are doing, and develop a model that enhances innovation. This will require creation of an additional department, which is solely tasked with the responsibility of innovation. The department will need to undertake aggressive market research in order to identify various opportunities and designs that people want and have not yet been exploited by the cloth manufacturing industry. Being an innovative hub means that the organisation has the ability of introducing its own unique products. It can build a brand name on these products (Finch, 2012). Expansion into men clothes will boost the sales levels hence increase revenues.

These changes will bring along other changes for effectiveness to be realised. Other changes will include recruitment of more employees since there is need to fill the new innovation department. Other departments like production, sales and marketing also need new employees due to the increased activities. The marketing department will bring in employees with knowledge regarding men clothes since existing employees have been dealing solely with women’s wear.  The human resource manager will be changed together with some members of this department. There is need to bring in a new manager in this department since the current one has been used to a culture that is being viewed as obsolete. Brining a new manager with the desired qualities will help the organisation recruit appropriate employees for the new openings in the company (Simms, 2013).

Polyfit Synthetics also aims at changing its current wage payment system. Currently, the organisation uses the piece rate mechanism whereby wages vary depending on the design that an employee is working on. The company wants to introduce hourly rate system. This has been triggered by complains forwarded by customers on previous occasions whereby some products are inferior. This occurs since some employees want to produce as much as possible in order to increase their wage package.

Change Management Planning Process

            Change usually results to a shift from the status quo, which affects both the resources and structure of the organisation. Employees are a resource in an organisation hence any proposed change affects them in one way or another. Dickersbach (2011) asserts that employees do not resist change, but they resist being changed. According to Samson & Daft (2012), almost 70% of change programs devised by organisations tend to fail. This is due to the imbalance on the focus of various outcomes that result with a certain change. Most organisations’ outcomes are economically driven, but there have been changes recently whereby outcomes that improve overall organisational capability are being desired.

Polyfit Synthetics is aware of change resistance that might emanate from its employees as the change process commences more so if the existing cultural ethos are being interrupted. Reasons for resistance include lack of trust or understanding, fear of the unknown, self-interest and contradicting goals among others (Samson & Daft, 2012). Polyfit Synthetics intends to involve all the employees in planning process in order to avoid any form of resistance.

To begin with, the company has enhanced open, continual and transparent communication with all the employees. The management has outlined various changes that are likely to take place. They have gone an extra mile to inform on the individuals that would be affected by the proposed changes. There have been re-assurances that none of the employees will be laid-off, but some of them might be moved to different departments. Existing employees will be re-trained in order to suit the desired changes. Such an aspect is meant to develop morale among the employees since they have the opportunity of broadening their innovative aspects. The education that will be provided will help increase their skills hence expand their scope, which is beneficial for future endeavours.

In order to ensure that communication is open, the management will listen to all the issues being raised by employees. A survey process will be conducted whereby all employees are expected to give their feedback.

Organisational Activities to be Engaged

Various activities will be included during this process in order to ensure that everything goes as planned. Polyfit Synthetics will employ an expert that has sufficient knowledge on change process. Change experts give guidelines on what ought to be done and intervene whenever there are any conflicts due to the change process (Lewis, 2011). He or she will not be directly involved with the running of day to day activities of the organisation. Relevant managers and employees will continue with their usual duties or any new duties that they will be assigned.

Another activity that will be taking place in organisation is education and training. Here, employees will be trained on new ways of doing things. They will have the opportunity of attaining new skills that will help them fit into the new systems. Education being given will help boost the innovation prospects being targeted by the organisation.

The management will also get busy with team building. This aims at ensuring that employees start working as a unit.  The initiative will be spearheaded at departmental level since every department operates independently. Working in partnership helps to boost the innovation prospect due to sharing of ideas (Miller 2012).

Convergence of Planning, Organisational Activities and Communication

The planning process adopted by the organisation ensures that there is effective communication to all the stakeholders involved. This is because the organisation wants everybody to participate in the change process in order to avoid instances of resistance once everything starts operating.  For everyone to participate in the best way possible there is need for the management to be open and transparent in its communication (Miller, 2012). It has to outline all the relevant information regarding the proposed change without holding some details. This applies to both the positive and negative information. When employees have a clear understanding of how the new look organisation will operate, chances of there being a resistance are reduced because the fear of the unknown has been eliminated (Burnes, 2009).

When everyone has an open mind, it becomes easy to alter the existing cultural ethos. Polyfit Synthetics will follow three change stages as described by Lewin’s Change Model. They entail unfreezing, changing and refreezing (Burnes, 2009). Unfreezing entails remoulding of the existing systems in order to pave way for the forthcoming changes. During this stage, the management should establish an essence of urgency, develop a clear vision, share the vision through effective communication, empower employees, secure short-term wins and then anchor the change with the aim of preventing old habits from creeping in (Finch, 2012). After the systems have been moulded in manner that the management wanted, refreezing takes place. An organisation has a new culture after this stage.

Change Implementation Tactics

Polyfit Synthetics has several change implementation tactics at its disposal. The company has opted to use three tactics during this process. The tactics include communication and education, participation and coercion as the last result. Communication and education will be used since there is some solid information regarding the change that needs to be provided to employees in order to overcome resistance. The management needs to be open and transparent while communicating any information in order to build trust with the employees. Provision of education on its part ensures that technical knowledge is impacted on employees and they are familiar with ideas driving the change (Simms, 2013). Cushman & King (2010) assert that the people being changed need to have an understanding of how the new system works. This ensures that a mental picture of success has been built for them. This way, employees will not resist change, and the implementation process will be swift since they are aware of what is required.

Participation on the other hand, will be used by engaging employees in giving their ideas on how the change process should be instituted. This way, they will feel as part of the organisation. They will have the responsibility of ensuring that the change process prevails since they are part of it. Employees will be eager to see their input applied in reality since they have a feeling that they are the actual engineers of the process (Lewis, 2011). The management might not implement all the recommendations, but the minor inclusions will be satisfying to them. This will prevent any change resistance prospect.

The management will only use coercion as the last option if the employees will not be willing to endorse change with the use of the preceding tactics. This is because change is inevitable for Polyfit Synthetics if they are to achieve the desired status.

“Future Proofing” for Change Sustenance

After Polyfit Synthetics exerts the necessary changes, there is need to safeguard the change in order to ensure its future sustainability.  Among the ways that Polyfit Synthetics will ensure that the change is sustainable is by enhancing adaptive cultural leadership and management behaviours. Leadership and management need to be continually adaptive for the change to run its course. This is because the leaders’ actions are symbolic and scrutinised by employees. Employees usually do what they see the top level management is doing (Simms, 2013). If the management works towards upholding the change that has already been introduced, the prospect of it being upheld is high. Polyfit Synthetics’ leadership should take visible steps towards the new culture by ensuring there is frequent and clear communication, employee interviews, meetings about their attitude towards the changes that have been endorsed.

The company should also take the initiative of making changes as need be even after this change has been completed. This will ensure that it remains to be viable in the industry, and hence result to more development in the organisation in future. Employees also tend to adopt a positive attitude about change, as a result (Lewis, 2011).

References
Burnes, B., 2009, Managing change: a strategic approach to organisational dynamics (5th ed.), Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times.
Cushman, D. P., & King, S. S., 2010, Communicating organizational change a management perspective, Albany: State University of New York Press.
Dickersbach, T., 2011, “Workplace Communication”, Journal of Organization Structures, vol. 5, no. 21, pp. 34.
Finch, E., 2012, “Initiating Innovation in the Organisation”, Journal of Change Communication , vol. 17, no. 8, pp.34.
Lewis, L. K., 2011, Organizational change creating change through strategic communication, Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.
Miller, K., 2012, Organizational communication: approaches and processes (6th ed.), Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Samson, D., & Daft, R. L., 2012, Management (4th Asia Pacific ed.), South Melbourne, Vic.: Cengage Learning.
Simms, H., 2013, “Organisational Behaviour and Implementation of Change”, Journal of Change Management, vol. 5, no.3, pp.67.

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